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The Sunset & Vine District launched our first public art initiative in 2015, which culminated in 10 original public artworks for display throughout the District. A project that initially aimed to transform common utility boxes into visually attractive displays of art has evolved into a greater symbol of neighborhood identity and community representation.

In partnership with the Do Art Foundation, the BID selected local artist Paige Emery through an extensive application process. Paige was chosen based on her ability to capture the District’s unique creative spirit and authentic vibe, which is reflected in her portrayal of Hollywood musicians. The installations will be on display for a year and can be found along the District’s major corridors, Sunset Boulevard & Vine Street.

Paige Emery is a Los Angeles-based artist with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Laguna College of Art and Design. While attending the university she received classical training in representational painting. Today she adds to her repertoire by incorporating abstract paintings with bold colors and expression. Emery employs oil painting to capture moments of truth among people she loves and meets in artistic and musical communities, emphasizing the rawness and honesty with expressive brushstrokes. While her specialty lies in figurative oil painting, she also combines her love for art and music by designing artwork for albums and posters for bands. Previous exhibitions include the Hibbleton, Gallery in Fullerton, Vintage Poster Gallery and Forest and Ocean Gallery in Laguna Beach, Lolipop Records in Los Angeles, and Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle.

Artist Statement

In a world where mainstream and commercial products easily gain success while independent artists and businesses struggle for recognition, I aim to shine a light on lives trying to make an impact with their music despite that system. I document a culture of Los Angeles that is not conventional and superficial, but an artistic community of underrated talent struggling to make it while following their passion to create and share art and music- something underappreciated and undervalued now more than ever. Los Angeles has an energy drawing people together to create. For this project I intend to expose the richness of bands that are shaping this sprawling metropolis by capturing moments that symbolize the changing way that music is affecting the world.

Bands

For each chosen band, I listened to their music while painting them. Each painting was expressively rendered to depict the mood and emotion I interpreted the band to emit. Incorporating vibrant geometrical shapes allowed the subject matter to merge with their environment. The Los Angeles bands painted are as follows:

Night Beats

Night Beats play pure psychedelic R&B music that drowns your third eye in sonic waves of color. Danny Lee Blackwell, James Traeger, and Jacob Bkovden orginated from Texas, and as a band feed off the state’s musical history. They recorded in LA this year with Nic Jodoin, at his home studio in Echo Park and also at his studio Valentine Recording Studio in Hollywood – a time capsule full of incredible old equipment perfectly intact. They’ve played all over the city including venues The Echo and the El Rey Theatre.

Fever the Ghost

Fever the Ghost is a fantasy/ girl glitch band musically interpreting the third dimensional integration process from the perspective of viral force energy incarnation into the physical world. Made up of Casper, Bobby, Nick and Mason, as a band they share the goal to one day meet Gary20O in person. They consider Los Angeles the greatest city for musicians, having recorded their album in Hollywood as well as constantly playing shows in Los Angeles like at he Troubadour and The Fonda. “The weather is warm, the opportunities are endless, and there are people from all walks of life that come here to create one of the most diverse music scenes out there. This is where I was born and raised and I’m proud to call it home. Wish I could have seen the Whisky in its heyday, back when the Doors were making a name for themselves.”

Cosmonauts

Cosmonauts is an independent rock n’ roll / noise pop outfit founded by Derek Cowart and Alexander Ahmadi in Fullerton, California. Amongst the teenage angst and suburban discontent brooding in that quiet city, Cosmonauts exploded on the scene with screaming guitars and trance-like vocal melodies set to more angular rhythms than their peers. Cosmonauts’ sonic tension was aimed at creating evocative and atmospheric pop music, with no shortage of punk attitude. Playing their first LA shows in various DIY warehouses around the city, the band grew a reputation for loud and chaotic performances. Cosmonauts have performed at Cinespace, Harvard and Stone, and various other clubs and bars in Hollywood. Now relocated in Los Angeles with members James Stewart and Mark Morones, the band continues to play in Hollywood and the Los Angeles independent music scene.

FEELS

FEELS is a psych /punk /grunge/ post future /rock + roll /whatever band born and raised in Los Angeles; in fact all four members are native Angeles. Growing up in LA, hanging out in Hollywood was a right of passage. It was a haven for punks, shows, skateboarders, vintage shops… and that strangely dark glamour that only a city of dreamers could possess. FEELS is out to wake you up, bring you out from hiding, hold your hand and jump off the cliff with you. The band played their first LA show at The Bootleg Theater and have played in Hollywood at Harvard and Stone and at an art exhibit at The Rock And Roll Cat Hollywood.

Drinking Flowers

Drinking Flowers is a drone- pop group trying to make the world a little weirder. They started as a band obsessed with the dark and strange corners of rock history and have morphed focusing more on lost artists of the 80’s. Alexander CulteDe La Raison, Jade Boo, Nick VC, and Dominick Digiacomo formed their band in Orange County, but quickly became tired of the art and music scene there. They set their eyes on Los Angeles and a few years later moved to Thai Town, a subsection of Hollywood. In Los Angeles they were soon joined by Carson Walsh. Drinking Flowers quickly became familiar with the music scene there and abroad. Eventually they curated their first ever residency at Harvard & Stone off Hollywood Blvd, where they worked in conjunction with L.A. Record on their last night. Since then they have become a seminal act in Hollywood and greater Los Angeles.

Winter

Winter is a breezy dose of sultry shoegaze and drippy dream pop whose sound was conceived in Boston as a collaborative effort between Samira Winter and Nolan Eley. Samira’s relocation to Los Angeles brought on the recruit of additional members Matt Hogan, David Yorr, and Garren Orr. Samira Winter and Matt Hogan met at Molly Malone’s and realized they had to be in a band together. Years later they can be found in every corner of Sunset Blvd; from The Roxy in West Hollywood, to Amoeba Records in Hollywood, to The Echoplex in and their practice space in Echo Park. Their music floats on with a youthful sense of nostalgia and romanticized segues into adulthood. Winter aspires to connect others with their inner child by making blissful, beautiful and ethereal pop music.

Triptides

Triptides are a rock group that blend psychedelic music and sunshine pop inside of a lucid dream. They are made up of Glenn Brigman, Josh Menashe, Bryant Fox, and Brian Dove. When the group found out that the southern California climate was perfect for recording 12 string guitars they left Bloomington, IN and moved out right away. When they moved to Los Angeles, their first performance was at a friend Samira’s house show, but that rapidly escaladed to playing in venues all over Los Angeles such as The Roxy and Harvard and Stone.

Molochs

The Molochs are a four-piece band that are rooted in the deepest, oldest forms of minimal, folk-oriented songwriting of the U.S. and the U.K.. Refusing to stand as mere retrospect, the Molochs disrupt the comfort of nostalgic sounds with the unease, uncertainty and anxiety of living in the early 21st century. The Molochs began in Long Beach with Lucas Fitzsimmons and Ryan Foster, and after they moved to Los Angeles they were joined by Derek Cowart and Cameron Gartung. The guys moved to Los Angeles because, unlike many big cities in the world, you can still find a place to call home within its cheap-dingy-dark corners. Contrary to expectations, the band found themselves playing our first show in Hollywood—a neighborhood they believed to be completely jaded and out of touch with today’s underground. The show at Harvard and Stone was a success, however, “and we look forward to seeing the neighborhood continue to enable the city’s pool of aspiring new artists.”

Hott MT

Hour Of The Time Majesty 12 is a post-pop, real-life fantasy group consisting of Spooky Tavi, Ashi Dala, Guidty Driver, and Chairman Towel. The group is influenced by Thai pop, shoegaze, and medieval court music. The band is mostly made up of people native to Los Angeles, who currently reside in east Hollywood. On the outskirts of Hollywood, they have found a playground of unlikely aesthetic relationships, plenty of surprising conversations, and have performed at venues like the Roxy, The Satellite, The Echo, and Non Plus Ultra. The chaos of life is hard felt, but well loved by them. They find world of Los Angeles is almost unbelievable, and Hour of The Time Majesty 12 live in the moments where sunlight hits reality and reflects back as a shimmering fantasy.

Froth

Froth is a kraut rock and shoegaze- influenced rock and roll band consisting of Joo-Joo Ashworth, Cameron Allen, Jeremy Katz, and Nicholas Ventura. Joo-Joo described their most recent music as “hiding a pop song behind a punky tempo and distorted, dreamy chords”. They got their start in 2013 playing house shows in El Segundo. Since then, they have been performing consistently in and around their hometown Los Angeles. Their most notable Hollywood appearances have been at Harvard and Stone and Non Plus Ultra.